What were you listening to? What had you stopped listening to? What new discoveries, what surprised you?Fave LPs/Tracks at the time? And now?Who did you think would make it big but never did?What did you miss looking back?Best gigs?

Anything else?

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

Diamond Dog wrote:I do however have a very good friend - John Reynolds...married to Sinead O'Connor

I can barely remember that year, so I can't really answer your questions. I do remember I'd pretty much stopped buying singles apart from the odd American 12" soul/electro track.I had a look at NME's top 50 singles and albums, and found I bought all of three (all albums) - Public Enemy. Eric B and Rakim and Cocteau Twins.The only band I remember listening to that weren't on that list was A.R.Kane, who I still rate. I probably bought 'The House Sound of Chicago' in that year too, I was onto that stuff pretty early. And the Morgan Khan Street Sounds comps of course.Like a lot of people, I was waiting for something to happen -luckily it did.

I turned 15 in 1988. It was, in reflection, the year I really started listening to music. I had no interest in it before then - apart from taping the Top 40.

What were you listening to? - Public Enemy mostly. I had "A nation of millions" welded to my walkman from '88. And the first album obviously. That's about it.

What had you stopped listening to? - Chart music

What new discoveries, what surprised you? - Everything I guess. My brother was in Loop at the time so he was sending me tapes of their stuff. It was ok, but I wasn't into it much. I liked what I heard of acid house, in particular this, which I heard for the first time on the radio in a cafe in Haltwhistle, whilst walking Hadrian's Wall.

Fave LPs/Tracks at the time? And now? - Well, my knowledge of acid house is much greater now obviously. My Bloody Valentine, Larry Heard, Pat Metheny, Steve Reich (Different Trains), loads of other ambient music like the Software album, which is a classic.

Who did you think would make it big but never did? - Loop!

What did you miss looking back? - I was too young for acid house, which was at its height then. None of my friends were into it, and wouldn't be until 1993 or so.

What new discoveries, what surprised you? late in the year my mate Dale played me some MBV, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, House of Love and some Sarah stuff on a good system which took up half of his student room. I can't say all of it blew me away but some SHO' opened my eyes to what guitars could do in the late 80s. And Blue Note comps - I listened to more jazz back then than I do now. Blue Bop was a beloved one (with a fabulous Tina Brooks' track)

Fave LPs/Tracks at the time? And now?Surfer Rosa was a BIG fave, played the fuck out of that one. 'Bremen Nacht', 'You Made Me Realise', Sugarcubes/That Petrol Emotion/Bachelor Pad/Huskers A-sides

What did you miss looking back? I don't feel like I missed anything. To the left was Tracy Chapman and to the right was Public Enemy and I fucking hated both. White boys with guitars, right?

Best gigs? House of Love at Birmingham Irish Centre, The Fall at Liverpool Royal Court, Weddoes at Newcastle Riverside were all bone-rattlers and I came away bruised (other gigs lost in an alcoholic haze - I seem to remember the Bhundu Boys packing the Riverside out)

Blimey, I only turned 13 back then. I think I was probably half way between listening to Level 42/Pet Shop Boys, and heading into thrash metal territory around then. I know that within a year I was regularly tuning into the John Peel show to hear whatever grindcore he was picking out.

Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

I was seven years old, so probably, the Teenage mutant hero turtles intro was probably my favorite tune.

Drama Queenie wrote:You are a chauvinist of the quaintest kind. About as threatening as Jack Duckworth, you are a harmless relic of that cherished era when things were 'different'. Now get back to drawing a moustache on that page three model